Moon Muses 2
Moon Muses
In winter you reach
across my bed
bounce off the mirror.
Pine needles frame your face.
We bundle deep in down
and creamy flannel
warm the night.
In spring you tease
rain shuts you out
from my rumpled bed.
You whisper to plant peas.
Your smile surprises me.
I hoot your name with the owls.
In summer you’re masked
most nights by fog.
Your scent spills through
my bedroom window
into my bed:
night blooming jasmine
earth sweat cooling.
I fantasize in your absence.
In fall you peek
exposed legs, entwined
sand dunes of white cotton.
Tomorrow lions and elephants
might trek the savannah
cross our mountains, valleys.
To lie in your light
I nudge him over.
His eyes reflect your shine.
Blankets thrown off
my hand on his curves
we glisten and glow.
Moon I keep my curtains open for you.
ArtLife Limited Editions published Moon Muses in its 19th anniversary issue, Dec. 1999 (see cover below).
For the broadside, I infused the lace in jasmine essential oil so when people opened the page, it was like opening the window and having the summery smell come in. The lace curtains are held open with brads, and glued along the “curtain rod”. Reading the poem required “opening” the curtains, becoming both the speaker in the poem and the moon.
I chose this poem in honor of tonight’s full moon, and the moon in the poems by Paul Squires and e.e. cummings (see previous post).
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I’m honoured. That is a beautiful moon poem, scent of jasmine and the seasons together with the moon give the poem added cyclic depth and grace. The broadside is beautiful too. What a brilliant idea, adding scent to your already fullsome conceptual art. Thankyou for the honouring, Iam humbled.
Thank you Paul!
This is a beautiful poem, a real exploration of the senses. The ending is great too.
Thanks, Nathan! I wrote this one after I had lived here a few years–I had been on the moves so much for so many years, it was a pleasure to observe how the moon traveled while I stayed in this one place. Now I’ve lived in this house several more years and we (the moon and I!) have become even more intimate!